Many years ago. In
his home in Japan, Hamato Yoshi sees something in the sky and rushes inside to
get someone.

The present.
Splinter tells the Turtles that he is going to partake of his annual
walkabout and, like always, they are to respect his privacy. The Turtles agree, but as soon as he leaves,
they decide to follow him and solve the mystery of the annual walkabout.

They trail Splinter across the rooftops and through the
empty streets (Mikey stopping for pizza), but they can’t shake the feeling that
Splinter knows they’re there. Leo thinks
he sees Splinter enter an old warehouse through a skylight and they go
inside. As soon as they do, they realize
that the warehouse looks very familiar.
As a horde of Mousers attack them, they come to the conclusion that this
was one of Baxter Stockman’s old hideouts.

The Turtles narrowly escape through the skylight, but
they aren’t ready to give up yet. Donnie
catches Splinter through some fancy binoculars he made and they give chase into
an alley. They promptly bump into
Rahzar, Fishface and a unit of Footbots, resulting in a nasty skirmish. The Turtles throw some smoke bombs and retreat,
realizing they’re badly outnumbered.

Back at the lair, the Turtles figure that Splinter led
them into all those traps because he truly DOES want to keep his walkabout
private. They whine amongst themselves
that they’ll never figure out what the big deal is.

Many years ago.
Hamato Yoshi brings his infant daughter, Miwa, outside to watch a
shooting star. He tells her happy
birthday.

The present.
Splinter sits on a rooftop, watching the stars and quietly wishes Miwa a
happy birthday, just as he always has.
Elsewhere, Karai, mutated into a snake, watches the sky as a
shooting star passes by.

*This story must take place sometime between the season 2
episodes “Vengeance is Mine” (where Karai is mutated) and “The Invasion (Part
1)” (which begins the storyline that sees the Turtles exiled from New York).

*Baxter Stockman had a lot of warehouses. This could be the one from “Mousers Attack!”,
though, given the Mousers and everything.

*The title “The Walkabout” does not appear in the actual
issue. Editor Bobby Curnow confirmed
this as the title on the IDW Forums.

Review:

Man, Splinter’s a jerk.
“My sons are following me. I’d
better lead them into several life-threatening traps in order to convince them
to go home.” Ahhhh, the comedy of child
abuse.

Anyway, “The Walkabout” is a pretty alright story that at
least gives us a chance to see several bad guys and enemies from the cartoon,
even if the Mousers, Rahzar, Fishface and the Footbots only receive 3 pages
between them.

It’s most assuredly a
coincidence, but Manning’s script shares similarities with the story “Sleepwalking Sensei” from Panini’s TMNT Magazine. In
that adventure, the Turtles follow Splinter in secret as he traipses through
New York, crossing paths with the Foot Clan and other life-threatening hazards
along the way. But like I said, I don’t
think it’s a matter of knocking off an idea, but rather that the idea wasn’t
very original to begin with.

What gives “The Walkabout” an edge is the subplot
involving Splinter lamenting over Karai.
The Karai storyline in the Nick cartoon was kind of fumbled in the second
season, but Manning tries to make lemonade out of it and the bookending
flashbacks are pretty nice.

All in all, “The Walkabout” is an okay story, but one we’ve
seen before in another form.

Grade: C- (as in, “Chad Thomas is still one of the better
artists they have on this title”.)